Thanks to Jen Ego and Pawsitively Pets for their support and promotion of this year’s campaign.

Thanks to so many of you for sharing your individual stories about how the food drive has impacted your home.

Thanks to our friends at The Daily Bread Food Bank for their help and support.

And last but not least, thanks to Rob and Jessi Tremblett for their amazing community support for the food drive. We are so lucky to have you as partners and to have your business in our neighbourhood.

Sarah set a goal for this year’s campaign of raising 24,000 pounds of food. That was a goal for the ENTIRE two week period.

We are thrilled to announce that The Battle of Bayview nearly raised that amount in the School Challenge alone!

Here are results:

TEAM EAST COMBINED TOTAL: 10,665 pounds of food (per capita 6.4 pounds of food per student)
TEAM WEST COMBINED TOTAL: 12,620 pounds of food (per capita 10.2 pounds of food per student)
TOTAL RAISED FOR BATTLE OF BAYVIEW: 23,196 POUNDS OF FOOD (per capita 8 pounds of food per student)

TEAM WEST WINS THE BATTLE OF BAYVIEW!!

Congratulations to Bennington Heights, Maurice Cody and Blythwood!! Many thanks to each of you for your help, leadership and enthusiasm for Sarah’s Food Drive and the Battle of Bayview! We are so thankful to all six schools, teachers, parents and administrators for eagerly coming on board and embracing this drive with such passion.

On behalf of our family and our friends at The Daily Bread Food Bank, I would like to wish each of you a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday.

For the past two years, Sarah’s Food Drive has benefited from the tremendous generosity of Peter and Chris Neal of Neal Brothers Foods. This year, they have contributed in tremendous fashion in conjunction with ‘Nutshell – Live Life Well’ stores, together donating over 12,000 pounds of food to the 6th annual food drive. That is over 1/2 of Sarah’s goal for the drive.

Thanks to Peter Neal of Neal Brothers for coordinating both the donation of food from Neal Brothers as well as the donation from Nutshell.

We sincerely appreciate the donations! They go a long way to helping hit Sarah’s goal this year.

On Saturday, October 5th, Tremblett’s valu-mart hosted a BBQ and Thanksgiving hamper build in support of Sarah’s Food Drive. From noon until 5, Rob and Jessi Tremblett hosted a BBQ. Hamburgers and hot dogs were available in return for a donation to Sarah’s Food Drive.

Over 30 local kids then helped build 160 Thanksgiving hampers that were purchased by customers of Tremblett’s, as well as local businesses.

The hampers were also part of a challenge from Kraft Canada — where Kraft donated $100 for every hamper purchased (up to $10,000). Kraft Canada was on hand to hand over a cheque for $10,000!

Over $750 was raised from the BBQ, and over 20 bins of food were picked up by The Daily Bread Food Bank.

A great way to end the first week of the food drive! There is still one week to go. The drive ends on October 13th.

Here are some pictures from the day:

Thank you to everyone who purchased a hamper or volunteered on Saturday to help build the hampers!

We are pleased to announce the corporate support of Kraft Canada. Kraft Canada has come on board in a very unique way, namely to challenge people to buy Thanksgiving holiday hampers, in support of the food drive.

Thanksgiving holiday hampers have been an important part of Sarah’s Food Drive and over the past two years, over 350 hampers have been assembled and distributed to families in need.

The annual Thanksgiving holiday hamper build is also an opportunity for the local community to come out and contribute in a grass roots way. Families and children are invited to assemble the hampers, thereby giving them a deeper connection to the cause.

Holiday hampers are available for purchase at Tremblett’s Valu-Mart (1500 Bayview Ave.) for $25. Each hamper includes a frozen ham or turkey and all the fixings for a complete Thanksgiving meal for a family in need. They will be distributed by The Daily Bread Food Bank.

The Kraft Canada Challenge
For every Thanksgiving holiday hamper purchased at Tremblett’s Valu-Mart, Kraft will donate $100 to Sarah’s Food Drive, to a maximum of 100 hampers (or $10,000).

The Thanksgiving holiday hampers are on sale now and can be purchased until Saturday October 5th at 2:30pm.